Manufacturers of products such as an image forming apparatus formed of a device and supplies make profits by selling the device to users and continually selling the supplies. However, due to the emergence of fraudulent supplies (not authorized by the manufacturers) distributed at a lower expense than genuine supplies (authorized by the manufacturers), the profits of the manufacturers have been decreasing.
In order to suppress the distribution of the fraudulent supplies and increase the sales of genuine supplies, the following methods have been used previously. First, a method of preventing copying by mounting a crypto-chip in the genuine supplies has been used. However, this method has problems including large expenses for developing technology and components of a crypto-chip, misrecognition of genuine supplies as fraudulent supplies via a device, and possible copying of the crypto-chip due to the development of reverse engineering technology. Second, a method of not guaranteeing the quality of supplies or blocking the usage of supplies after a predetermined lifespan by restricting a guaranteed life span of the supplies has been used. However, this method is restrictedly applied to products due to environmental organizations and related regulations. Third, a method of giving a benefit to a purchaser frequently using genuine supplies by adopting a mileage program has been used. However, the mileage program is not cost effective in terms of expenses for establishing and maintaining a service system, and it is hard to prevent side effects that an individual distributor, such as a dealer or purchasing personnel, may obtain all of the mileage by purchasing a large quantity of supplies.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.